Rumor: Apple courting Samsung to build AMOLED displays for iPad 3?

9to5 Staff | May 26 2011 - 4:15 am PT

File this one under the highly improbable drawer because there’s little chance Samsung will let Apple get their hands on its active-matrix organic LED technology, better known as AMOLED, which is an important differentiating hardware feature of their Galaxy S smartphone series…especially now that Apple has sued them. However, The Korea Herald heard from sources that Apple is actively courting Samsung to build AMOLED displays for a third-generation iPad. It’s allegedly a high enough priority for Apple’s operations chief Timothy Cook, who has been running the company in Jobs’ absence, to discuss the possibility with Samsung’s top brass during a recent trip to South Korea:

Apple wants to tap into Samsung’s AMOLED technology for an upgraded version of the iPad2, considered as many as the iPad3 that is likely to be launched toward the end of this year. During Cook’s trip last week, Apple seems to have offered Samsung an advance for the AMOLED displays.

Another reason this doesn’t make sense is the publication’s claim of iPad 3 launching in 2011. Android tablets currently don’t pose grave threat to iPad’s dominance so there’s little incentive in rushing out a new iPad mere eight moths following the second-generation iPad’s launch. There are plenty of other reasons, too…

First, Samsung would be crazy to allow Steve Jobs to beat them to market with the world’s first AMOLED tablet. Plus, the report notes Samsung might consider using AMOLED displays in own future tablets, which makes perfect sense as their Galaxy Tab-branded tablets use regular LCDs. There’s also that pending lawsuit that won’t go away. Never say never, as they say, but a lot of money would need to change hands if such a deal were ever to become a reality. AMOLED technology is credited with many benefits, from low power consumption and high refresh rates to deep and true blacks, vivid colors and great outdoor visibility. It as also less prone to manufacturing issues, such as dead pixels and backlight bleeding that some early iPad 2 adopters reported. The Korean consumer electronics maker hasn’t shied away from focusing on AMOLED in its television commercials (see below).